Mentor Areas
The goal of my research is to find new strategies to attenuate - or prevent - severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), with the ultimate purpose of developing more targeted lung protective strategies (including innovative modalities of mechanical ventilation and new drugs). Characterized by diffuse inflammation of both lungs, ARDS is a hypoxic syndrome that has no specific treatment and causes patients to require mechanical (artificial) ventilation to survive: 64% of them will eventually die. Preventing severe ARDS could be the best way to reduce mortality. Since mechanical ventilation in the prone position increases survival in patients, we hypothesize that prone positioning may also affect the propagation and evolution of pulmonary inflammation. The effect of body position may be additive or synergistic with those of pharmacological agents that modulate lung injury. Using large and small animal models of injury, we concentrate on the mechanisms that lead to topographical dissemination of initially localized or mild pulmonary inflammation (i.e. acid aspiration, extrapulmonary sepsis). The combined use of CT and MRI allows us to obtain morphological and functional information on pulmonary responses to lung injury and mechanical ventilation.
Description:
Our laboratory has perfected an animal model of early lung injury in which we measure injury propagation using multimodal high-resolution imaging, in pigs ventilated for more than 24 hours. Our armamentarium includes serial computerized tomography and hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging, in addition with tissue and blood biomarkers of inflammation; we are studying the functional and biologic consequences of illness and therapy. Our studies will enable personalized treatment of patients with acute respiratory failure.
Students will assist in data collection, with particular involvement in 3D image reconstruction and analysis techniques. For those interested, students can learn animal preparation and surgery techniques, run the biological experiments associated with the project, and perform tissue analysis.
Preferred Qualifications
Students should have basic laboratory skills. Computer programming experience is appreciated but not required.
Details:
Preferred Student Year
First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior
Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.